The present disclosure concerns an antenna subsystem that can be used in various repeater systems to optimize gain of the repeater by increasing isolation between donor and server antennas.
Typically, repeater products maximize isolation between the donor and server antennas through the use of highly directive antennas that point away from each other. However, with multiband antennas that cover broad frequency ranges (e.g. from 700 MHz to 2.1 GHz), the size of such highly directive antennas prohibits such an arrangement. In a three-hop repeater, the separation between the donor and server antennas helps to increase this isolation. However, normally directional antennas are used even in three hop repeaters to improve isolation and maximize system gain.
US Pub. 2012/0015608, published Jan. 19, 2012, herein “the '608 pub”, describes a method in a wireless repeater employing an antenna array for interference reduction; the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. In the '608 pub., it is suggested that one or both of the donor and server antennas may comprise a multi-antenna array, and further, that the antenna arrays can be sampled and processed to identify and condition the repeater system to relay an optimized version of an incoming signal received. One problem with the '608 pub is a volume required of the repeater system to house the multi-antenna array(s).